[Towertalk] The Ham Radio Business

[Mike]

Wow, Henry, thats a hard act to follow. I am 36 years old, have an EE
degree, and am still struggling to get my homebrew radios to work :)

With regard to public exposure of ham radio, Tree, N6TR and Alan
Kaul, W6RCL have done some interesting things lately. Tree setup
a NA1SS (space station) QSO at one of the local elementary
schools and Alan made a segment on the event for the NBC evening
news (he is a producer for NBC). Don't know if it made the final cut
Saturday night, but a previous segment they put together on the Kids
Day Contest was aired nationally several years ago.

Another great video piece called "To win the world" was floating
around about 15 years ago. It featured the CQ WW Phone operation
at N2AA and their battle with rival station W2PV - 200 foot towers,
an 80 meter yagi, and guys climbing towers in the middle of the night to
repair bad coax connectors. It really played on the competitive aspects
of ham radio.

There was also a made for TV movie about 25 years ago about a
young kid who took his Atlas 210X along on a cruise ship. The
ship was hijacked by terrorists and the kid was able to relay
information to another ham in Texas or Lousiana (some guy
on a ranch with a big antenna) and save the day. Nowadays,
I suppose he would have a laptop and an INMARSAT terminal.
More recently, the film Contact featured a young Ellie Arroway
calling CQ on her ham radio as a segue into her career as a
radio astronomer.

73 de Mike, W4EF.......................


----- Original Message -----
From: <A9xw@cs.com>
To: <res0958z@verizon.net>; <TOWERTALK@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, April 01, 2002 2:53 PM
Subject: Re: [Towertalk] The Ham Radio Business


> There were lots of replies.  Some marked private which is OK.  Some good
> threads came out that were not fully touched on but then, this isn't a
book!
>
> kids and lids:  I knoe from experience how hard it is as a kid to get
someone
> to tell you what and how to get a license.  When I was about 6 i built a
> radio from a library book, heard some CW,  copied it down then decoded it,
> got on my bike and DF'ed my way to the hams house. Turned out to be the
> father of a school friend. I rang the bell and when he answered the door I
> told him I had built a radio (in my hand) and had heard his signal and
found
> him by riding around until the signal was strongest then noticed an
antenna.
> his first response was to look at the home made radio and tell me it
wasn't
> his problem that it picked up his signal and not the local Am radio
station.
> I finally got him to show me his stuff, got the 3 cent tour and was told
it I
> could never be a ham because I was too young and didnt understand anything
> about it.   Shucks, I was only 6 and had already built several radios that
> worked from library books and one Allied radio kit. Yeah, i didn't know CW
or
> ohm's law, and he wasn''t about to be bothered with a kid.  But I knew
enough
> to write down dots and dashes and look up the letters in morse code, and
find
> his house by listning for the strongest signal!   Later  the family moved
> vack to Chicago. I spotted a ham antenna (wire) across the street. i was
just
> sytarting high school.  Similar experience, no I wasn't there to compalin
> about TVI. OK, he only worked 160  once ina while.  no he didn't care that
I
> built a 160 meter receiver in a cigar box from an article in Electronics
> illustrated.  slam.   My girl friend's dad also turned out to be a ham.
not
> even a shack tour.  When I was 21 I  was working at a TV facility next to
a
> Red Cross building and one nite the cars with the antennas were there so I
> invited myself to the club meeting. only one person introduced themselves.
I
> already had 3 years broadcast experience and my first class ticket.  After
> three meetings I found one person that would tech me CW and help me get my
> novice ticket.  It aint easy to become a ham.
>
> Where do we go fomr here.
> there have been a lot of good ideas tossed out over the years.  in the
1960's
> after getting my novice license WN8HEE, I produced and distributed a 60
> second TV PSA (public service announcement) to over 300 TV stations.  I
wrote
> to ARRL and told them about it.  I got the local club on 15 Michigan and
ohio
> TV stations to promote the ham fest,  biggest attendence they had despite
> blizzard.  ARRL reponse:  nothing.  I got a service award for
participating
> in a Simulated emergency test.  BFD.  The city of Toledo sent me a nice
> certificate because on the way to the TV station there to discuss ham
radio
> on an interview show, I happened on a auto accident and did some CPR. but
had
> to call on the CB radio to get help because no one was on the local
> repeaters.  Similar experience in Terre haute when a Semi hit a VW buss
head
> on and the driver was in the third row back and the truck driver was on
the
> pavement after going through the windshield. 4 dead, 5 injured, one was
taken
> still pinned in the seat to the ambulance  doa.
>
> So, if you're going to put up a repeater, do so if there are enough people
to
> use it that its useful when really needed.  have a public access 911 phone
> patch if you don't bother to listen to your own machine.
>
> After getting  my tech ticket I recorded and sent out 13 programs for
radio
> called the Marconi experiment.  it was on about 50 stations late nite. It
> included live QSO's recorded witht eh knowledge and permission of the
> stations, who would often express that they knew it would be on the radio
> show.  We did live in studio interviews (live to tape) .  We didn't have a
> bunch of UFO and conspiracy BS or psudo science, just discussions of the
fun
> of ham radio and what was going on in those early days of FM repeaters and
> good band openings, DX  RTTY and such.
>
> managed to get into TV guide on a few occasions and a few other non ham
mags.
> Not a large response, but any PR is good PR.  made it to NBC nightly news.
> Helps.
>
> When I owned my own radio station I broadcast a ham radio program and CW
> lessons after regular programming and before sign-off.  Don't know what
the
> response was, but it was an effort.
>
> Now if  100 hams did this, imagine what we might have been able to do!  if
> ARRL had helped sponsor or if any of the ham manufacturers had helped
sponsor
> the efforts, imagine what might have been possible.  No one within the ham
> biz lifted a finger.
>
> At an Industry meeting at Dayton many years ago, the producer of a TV
series
> (ALF?) came in and said to the group how we could produce a TV program
using
> inexpensive TV gear (the video toaster) that he was using to do the
> commercial show. Would anyone help out to defray the costs of production,
> which to meet Broadcast TV standards meant post production, audio
sweetning
> and talent costs.  he had a demo tape, made a good pitch.  the room
divided
> equally in half.  one half said ARRL should pay for it, the other half
said
> they wouldn't pay for it.   So it never happened.
>
> A few years later I tried to promote hams getting LPTV licenses and not
long
> ago low power FM licenses. you could cover the metropolitan market with
these
> and could broadcast anything you wanted, make money and retrans NASA
select,
> your local ham club meeting, other ham activities like Field Day.  Nobody
did
> it.  The licenses could have been had for a few thousand in application
> costs.  Today most of LPTV stations are worth a half million to several
> million bucks.  Instead a lot became Home Shopping outlets raking in
millions
> of bucks profit a year,  Trinity religion stations,  Video juke Boxes,
etc.
> A low power Fm station,  100 watts at 100 feet would fit on many ham
towers,
> covers a radius of 15 miles.  Will anyone put one on for ham radio?  Not
> likely. Costs 10 cents an hour to run.
>
> I used to give away "The Good Image Award" for hams that got good press
for
> their public relations work.  I gave up after 1985 because there wasn;t
> enough "press" being generated to make a contest of it.  Not much beyond
the
> field day blurb in the local small town papers.
>
> When it comes to promoting our hobby, most hams are our own worst enemies.
> Even the people who stand to make a buck if ham radio thrives don't want
to
> help out.  "QST ads are too expensive" is the lament, "can't afford to
> advertise in QST and then have anything left for the other magazines."
QRT
> Ham Radio magazine. QRT FM Magazine, and a dozen others.
>
> An interesting question in my mind has always been, "Would Heathkit be
alive
> and well today if the owners had been better business people instead of
> robber barons who it seems just bought the company to ransack its profits
for
> other losing operations like ZENITH  bankrupt at last?"
>
> With CABLE channels it seems to me that it should be even easier to get
some
> ham radio promotion since we don;t have to rely on a handful of network
owned
> TV stations and  mega radio station groups controlling 90% of the
broadcast
> airways.  have we seen the last "Ham's Wide World" movie extolling the
> virtues of tubes and CW? Lets hope so. Valiant efforts, but wrong message,
it
> promoted we are behind the times, not leading the world.  The effort of
the
> Seattle hams to produce a half hour TV program, well made, good
intentions,
> good story and acting, but the story line was passing the CW key from  a
old
> man to a young boy.  Makes us look like antique radio buffs.
>
> Popular movies:  Frequency.  Contact,  Made good PR, but nothing in the
> credits to point a viewer at an INFORMATION SOURCE.  Tube radios!
yeeeech.
> not what prospect hams want to see.  OK for us to warm our hands over, but
> not representative of modern ham radio. ARRL was given credit in the
printed
> press as assisting in the productions (likely supplied the tube radio) but
no
> on screen credits.  Lost opportunity, while the League spends thousands on

> Archie Comic Books. Does a youth that reads comic books have an interest
in
> ham radio or an interest in fantasy, lazer guns, killing the Taliban or
his
> school chums?   I donno.   I suggested to the producers of M.A.S.H. that
> maybe they could have an episode where the troops call home on phone
patch.
> plop that hit the ground and dried up.  At least I tried!  ALF's character
> Henry was a ham and we saw him use the stuff once or twice. but the props
> were 50's and 60's hardware for an 80's TV show. hey you Hollywood hams,
can
> you get some donation to the property master of newer ham gear?
>
> So there are some anecdotes and ideas that could, might, certainly worth
> trying, help ham radio.
>
> 73
>
> Henry AA9XW
>
>
>
>
>
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